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 Senior Leonardo Paludo notches game-high 16 kills |
Feb. 27, 2008
NEWARK, NJ - NJIT swept Wednesday night's Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Tait Division match from visiting East Stroudsburg, 3-0, but it wasn't an easy win.
The games got increasingly difficult for the Highlanders as the match in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center progressed. NJIT took the first game easily, 30-24. Then the Highlanders took the second game, 30-24, but it was more difficult than the first. Finally, NJIT had to go to extra points, 35-33, to clinch game three and the match.
The victory leaves the Highlanders with a 2-4 record in the EIVA Tait Division and 7-5 overall. East Stroudsburg, which eliminated NJIT from last season's EIVA postseason playoffs, is 0-6 in the EIVA Tait, having lost both games of the season series with the Highlanders. The Warriors are 1-9 overall.
Seniors Leonardo Paludo and Eduardo Welter combined for 31 kills to lead the NJIT attack. Paludo had a match-high 16 kills, while Welter killed 15 points and posted a match-best .458 hitting percentage (15 kills, 4 errors, 24 attempts).
Amobi Armstrong added 10 kills and junior setter Rodrigo Correa notched 50 assists for the Highlanders. Greg Wagner had six block assists, while Paludo had a block solo and three block assists and Armstrong had four block assists for the Highlanders, who enjoyed a 10-5 team blocking advantage.
Chris Siddayao led NJIT's floor defense with eight digs and Welter had seven.
Freshman Don Hanna led the visiting Warriors with 11 kills, while senior setter John Post had 30 assists. Junior RJ Roth's 10 digs were match high, while junior Kyle Duffy collected four block assists.
NJIT opened the match with a 3-0 start to game one and the Highlanders soon went up, 11-4. They led by as many a nine, 23-14 well into the game and coasted to the 30-24 win led by Welter's six kills in nine swings.
The second game ended with the same 30-24 score as the first, but game two was in doubt much longer.
The Highlanders did not get their lead above two until 10-7 and they did not get their lead above four until 20-15. They appeared back in control at 24-17, but the Warriors rallied and pulled to within four three times in the twenties, at 24-20, 26-22 and 28-24, before the Highlanders won the frame. Paludo and Welter picked up five kills apiece in game two.
The third game was by far the most exciting of the night. There were 10 ties, including five after one or the other team was serving for game point.
NJIT, which did not lead from the 17th point until a short-lived 32-31 advantage, finally claimed the 35-33 win with the last two points of the match.
Minutes earlier, the Highlanders were in a 23-27 hole after East Stroudsburg's Chris Holden posted a kill. But they fought back with three straight points on a kill by Paludo, a Warrior attack error and a kill by Paludo that made it 26-27.
A service error and an attack error on the next two points put the Highlanders on the brink of defeat, 26-29, before an East Stroudsburg service error, a kill by Correa and a kill by Welter brought them back even, 29-29.
Neither team could get the requisite two-point lead until Armstrong broke the 33-33 tie with a kill and then Paludo's attack caromed out of bounds off a would-be East Stroudsburg block for the clinching point.
NJIT's next three matches should be pivotal in their season as they take on three straight Tait Division foes, starting with perennial champion Penn State, which this week moved up to the top spot in the national coaches' poll. The match at Penn State on Saturday begins at 7 pm. The Nittany Lions defeated NJIT, 3-0, on February 2 in a match that featured three close games.
